Vulture's Wargaming Blog

Saturday, 28 February 2015

Had my first taste of the SAGA game at the club on Thursday. SAGA for those who haven't heard about it is a skirmish figure game set in the Darkages - produced by Gripping Beast.
Up to recent I'd viewed the odd game from afar and hadn't really been inspired to try it. However a game at the club a few weeks back looked such good fun I felt motivated to ask John Savage to run a game another game so that I could join in. I dug out some very old 25mm Byzantines (mostly Irregular Miniatures) that I bought over 25 years ago, that hadn't seen the light of day for a decade I reckon (last used in a WAB game) to make up a 4 point army. After an enjoyable I must confess to being quite impressed. The rules seem pretty straightforward and even in my first game I was able get a hang of most of the basics.

I can see this is a system we'll be using for some time to come. I like the way the armies aren't that big (its a skirmish game after all), so you don't have to make a massive investment, and can actually afford to have a selection if you want to. Found a company called 'The Dice Bag Lady' that do a 6 point plastic Viking army for only £23 !

I'm definitely going to buy the rule book this weekend, and am thinking about another army to get to use as well as my old Byzantine one.
Here's a listing of the various different factions I found on the web, on the Gosford Gamers web site (Link).
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As normal here's a few pics (of one end of the table) of what was a slightly chaotic 6 sided every man for himself game :)

Tuesday, 24 February 2015

My CCKW due to its age is considered a historic vehicle by the DVLA and as such is exempt from requiring an annual MOT. Owners self-authorise the road-worthiness of their vehicles. From my point of view whilst it's a relief not to have to face the trauma of a MOT on such old vehicle I do want to be safe on the road. To that end 2 years ago I put the truck in for a safety inspection (Link) and it's now time for another. I'm using a specialist company called MV Depot who are based here in Yorkshire. Adam Wright the owner is very experienced with CCKWs and having taken all the wheels off and inspected it all over, I'm following his recommendation and having the all the brake cylinders and hub seals renewed. Here's a couple of pics from yesterday and today.

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Truck up on axle stands, all wheels off.
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Rear drum brakes exposed.
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Close up of the brake mechanism. You can see where there has been a slight weep of brake fluid from the cylinder.
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Rear brake cylinders all removed and cleaned, waiting on new seals.
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Friday, 20 February 2015

Last night at the club we had a another FUBAR 40K game. Further tweaks to the rules were experimented with, namely:
a) Adding an activation system as per the Bolt Action rules, and
b) Adding proper penetration charts for armoured vehicles, like with the FUBAR 15mm expanded rules our club uses.
c) Use of a slave Psyker.
The penetration charts worked fine but the Bolt Action system of pulling dice out, to then prompt an activation role was deemed a failure by all involved. In future where multiple players per side are involved (as they were in this instance) we will use a system where at the start of each turn both sides roll to see who goes first, highest on a D6 winning. Every player on that side then gets an opportunity to try and activate a unit. It then switches to the other team, who then get to try and activate a unit each etc etc. The Pysker rules were fine as well, and detailed at the end of this posting.

The scenario last night saw the Emperors forces fighting on the fortress-world Jago against the dark forces of Chaos. It had become know that a lost relic associated with Saint Sabbathad been found in a small village. A mixed mech platoon of the 53rd Cadogus Regt (Imperial Guard) was despatched with a small Pysker unit from the Sanction Division to secure the artefact before it was desecrated by the unbelievers. The enemy forces also despatched forces to the village, in the shape of an Ork Platoon and two Chaos Space Marine squads. Battle was joined when the 53rd were disturbed searching the village. One section of Guard held up the Orks north of the bridge, but were ultimately wiped out to a man. The Chaos Space Marine advance from the West was disrupted when a Pysker took control of a squad member with a missile launcher. This and a Lee-Man Russ tank saw that squad being eliminated, but the mental effort was too much for the Pysker who suffered a melt-down. A 2nd Chaos squad made it into the village but was unable to stop the Guard locating the artefact and escaping off-board before they too were wiped out. An entertaining little game overall -Here's some pics.
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-Slave Psyker Rules for FUBAR 40K (Expanded)
Slave Pysker is chained in a cage and has to be attended by at least 2 member of the Sanction Division who will be armed with Laser Pistols and Flak body Armour.
1. Must be activated in the normal way. Initiative roll 4+.
2. Range of use: 36:
3. Can attempt mind control of any individual (not another Pysker). Is successful on a roll of 2+ on a D6.
3. The following turn(s), provided the Pysker activates the individual under control can be given any normal action, including a new one of Suicide.
4. Once under mind control, if the Pysker does not successfully activate, the individual does nothing.
5. Each turn the Psyker uses his mind control there is a chance he will go mad. On a roll of 6+ each turn this happens.
6. If the Pysker 'goes mad' the following happens:
a) The individual under his control reverts immediately to the original players control.
b) His attendants are automatically killed by a Psychic blast.
c) Any other troops within 12" must make a D6 roll, and on a 5+ go mad and go over the enemy's control where they must try and fire on their old team mates. If no targets can be seen, they commit suicide.

The funeral for Shakespeare's greatest villain is fast approaching. But
did he really kill the princes in the Tower ? Late Tudor England was a
lethal environment for the politically unwary, with errors of judgement
frequently resulting in a one-way trip to Tyburn gallows.
There is an interesting article here on the Telegraph web site that is worth a read: Link
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Wednesday, 18 February 2015

A friend of mine Andy Baxter sent me this excellent picture of an M1 that he came across. It makes for a good desktop background :)
-Comment: A U.S. Army Abrams M1A1 tank takes a defensive position at a staging area during Ready Crucible in Germany, on Feb. 11, 2005. Over 50 tanks from the 1st Armour Division, Humvees, and support vehicles drove through more than 60 kilometres of German roadway and farmlands making Ready Crucible the largest movement of American armour in Germany since the 1980's. DoD photo by Richard Bumgardner, U.S. Army. (Released)
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13. A
man takes his Rottweiler to the vet. 'My dog is cross-eyed, is there anything
you can do for him?''Well,' said the vet, 'let's have a look at him'So
he picks the dog up and examines his eyes, then he checks his teeth. Finally, he
says, 'I'm going to have to put him down.'

17...
So I was getting into my car, and this bloke says to me 'Can you give me a
lift?'I said 'Sure, you look great, the world's your oyster, go for
it...'

18.
Apparently, 1 in 5 people in the world are Chinese. There are 5 people in my
family, so it must be one of them. It's either my mum or my Dad, or my older
brother Colin, or my younger brother Ho-Cha-Chu. But I think it's
Colin.

19. Two
fat blokes in a pub, one says to the other 'Your round.' The other one says 'So
are you, you fat bastard!'

20.
Police arrested two kids yesterday, one was drinking battery acid, and the other
was eating fireworks. They charged one and let the other one off.

21. 'You
know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little
note on the windscreen. It said, 'Parking Fine.' So that was nice.'

22. A
man walked into the doctors, he said, 'I've hurt my arm in several
places'The doctor said, 'Well don't go there anymore'

23..
Ireland 's worst air disaster occurred early this morning when a small
two-seater Cessna plane crashed into a cemetery. Irish search and rescue workers
have recovered 2826
bodies so far and expect that number to climb as digging continues into the
night.

Saturday, 31 January 2015

A bit of a update on truck adventures in the last few weeks. Always a bit reluctant to to start after being stood for a while, with the assistance of a few squirts of Damp Start (ether based) she will normally fire up. After a failed attempt I cleaned the plugs and check the gaps, but didn't help, so it was clear that something was amiss. As there was fuel in the filter the problem was probably electrical, although I did a have a spark at the points. Having inspected the inside of the Distributor Cap I could see it was quite pitted so I thought I would replace that along with the Condenser and Rotor Arm as well for good measure. A call through to Rex Ward sourced some replacements which turned up the next day :)
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Fitting the new parts in turn, the old Condenser was the culprit, but just for good measure I still went ahead and replaced the Cap and Arm.
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It's two years now since I had the truck independently looked over, so I had arranged to take up to MV Depot at Helperby this week. I want him to have all the wheels off, check all the brakes over and amongst other things change the fuel filter. In preparation for the 20 mile drive I stuck some fuel in at the local Tescos supermarket and was happily driving it home when the engine spluttered to stop and I found myself broken down at the side of the road :( Checking under the bonnet, the problem was obvious, fuel contamination... See pic below.
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Fortunately I subscribe to a recovery service through my insurers, so eventually I got recovered.
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The following morning the truck was winch off at MV Depot, and he managed to get it going.
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On the one hand I feel unlucky because it broke down just before the main fuel filter was going to be changed. Sludge and water in the system would have become apparent then. On the other hand I feel lucky that it broke down on a straight stretch where it didn't inconvenience anyone. Given that I'd just driven right through the centre of York, if I'd broken 2 miles earlier in the middle of one of the major junctions it could have caused truly massive disruption...
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Monday, 12 January 2015

Last Thursdays club night saw a busy nights gaming by my normal crowd with two games under way. John Savage ran an ancients game, using for the first time the Sword and Spear rules. From what I could see the game played well and the Romans in managed to achieve their objective of rescuing some captured soldiers who were about to be sacrificed in a Wicker Man.
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Myself I was involved with Chris, Gavin, and John Elwen in our first Zombicide game. I posted on 31 Dec 14 that I'd got a copy of the game for Christmas and both John and I were really looking forward to trying it out. It's one of those things you can read the rules, but until you actually get into a full blooded game you don't know whether its going to be any good. We managed to get two games in and thoroughly enjoyed both. Looking forward to our next session so be can progress to the next scenario :)
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Thursday, 1 January 2015

Last Saturday was the annual X-Mas holiday big game at the Harrogate
Wargames Club. Organised by John Savage with input from Theo Street who
then umpired during the day this was the American Civil War (ACW)
being re-fought in 28mm scale. Forces for the day were, Simon, Chris,
John E and Gavin on the Union side and myself, Mark, Bill, John S and
Mick as Confederates. The results of two small battles before lunch
(one a draw and the other a Union victory) 'Front Royal' and 'Mcdowell' were fed into the one big
game in the afternoon - the '1st Battle of Winchester'.

Here are a few pics :)
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The start of the first battle I was involved with. Viewed from the Confederate side we had to force the Union from their positions and try and exit units off the board.
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Mid way through the game the my Confederate Infantry engage the Union troops across the river whilst Marks cavalry circle round behind. We ran out of time before I could really force the issue.
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Pics now from the big afternoon game. The Union defence line can be clearly seen.
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The Union stage a surprise attack on the Conferate right flank.
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The crux of the battle taking place on the left flank as the Union line starts buckling under the pressure.
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Saturday, 6 December 2014

Went along to the Recon Wargames Show today. This is a small local show put on by the Wakefield and District Wargamers Club in the Pudsey Civic Centre. It it must be over 15 years ago since I last went so I couldn't clearly remember anything about the venue or the show. Found myself pleasantly surprised all in all. There was a good mix of traders and selection of games to watch/participate, plus the food and drink was very reasonably priced. My only criticism is reserved for the Bring and Buy which was rubbish. The space available to show the bits for sale was inadequate as was the frontage to view the items, plus there was insufficient depth because it shared the room with several traders.
Found myself tempted by all sorts of goodies, but in the end settled on a purchase of the 'Firefly' board game, a jar of green Basetex and a Flames of War blister pack for £5 containing two CCKWs. Looking forward to getting to grips with the game, as I've read lots of good things about it. Link
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Mrs Vulture has been and bought some festive lights for the front of the CCKW truck. Seemed like a good excuse to go for a drive into York last night, coinciding as it did with my birthday. :)
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Here we are parked up in front of York Minster.
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Tuesday, 2 December 2014

-On the 20th October 2014 Murray Walker OBE, a former Sherman tank Commander with the Scots Greys during World War II, well-known as a motor racing commentator, opened The Tank Museum’s latest exhibition, ‘Fury’. -

At the moment I'm re-reading one of my favourite sci-fi series of all time, the Gaunts Ghosts omnibus edition by Dan Abnett. Of course reading about the Warhammer 40K universe prompts an itch to dig out my 40K figures and have a game. The problem though is the Gameswork Shop 40k rule set which is not at all liked by myself or my gaming group at the Harrogate Wargames Club. As a comprise I suggested we use the expanded version of the FUBAR rules I've blogged about before and a 40K supplement I found on the web. Accordingly we had a game a couple of weeks back with myself acting as the Umpire.

Playing on our usual 8' x 8' table an Imperial force comprising 2 x squads of 5 Space Marines and a squad of Imperial Guard (10 strong) entered in one corner and the forces of Chaos in the shape of 2 Ork squads (12 each) and 2 squads of Grots Snotlings (10 each) at the opposite. Both sides moved forward and got set into each other and it quickly became apparent that the Space Marines had a significant qualitative advantage in-spite of their small numbers. Both sides fed reinforcements in in the form of heavier units including a 3 man unit of Imperial Terminators which teleported down but using a random dice not into a great spot! LOL. Undaunted however they climbed onto a building and opened up with their Heavy Bolters. This was an interesting moment for they almost wasted an entire Orc squad in one round of firing. This generated lots of banter round the table and a last ditch effort by the underpowered Orc team to try and kill some more Marines. At this point we ran out of time, but notwithstanding this the game was judged to have been a great success. Easy to pick up rules that gave a reasonable result without too much stress made a for a good evenings wargaming entertainment :)
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Saturday, 29 November 2014

Armistice Day is remembered as the day World War One ended, but for naval historians Britain's greatest victory came 10 days later. Operation ZZ was the code name for the surrender of Germany's mighty navy. This article on the BBC web site is worth a read: Link

Friday, 31 October 2014

To spice our 20mm Bolt Action games up, I have come up with some Vehicle Observation Rules.
They can be downloaded here.

The way to use them is quite straightforward.
1. In secret work our your army list.
2. Select a substitute vehicle (and make a note against the army list).
3. When first placing the vehicle(s) down on the table-top, use the substitute(s) rather then the one you have paid for on the army list. Only swap the modes over when the enemy correctly identify them.
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Here is a picture from a game I played last night at the Harrogate Wargames Club. It's early on as my vehicles enter the table. Substituting vehicles, the King Tiger and Jadgtigers are representing Sd kfz 251/22 with Pak 40s, The PIV is actually a Hummel and the Brummbar is playing as itself, after it has just been identified by the enemy (after a lucky combination of die rolls forced a Churchill crew to abandon their tank :) )
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Saturday, 25 October 2014

Went to see the 'Fury' film on Wednesday for a late night showing at our
local 'VUE' cinema here in York. Took along my brother-in-law Mike and
my old friend Chris Jenkins. We decided to make the most of the
experience and booked the luxury seats and chose the high definition
screen to watch it on. First time I've seen a film on that screen, and
was impressed with the 4 x higher resolution, everything was a lot
sharper.

As for the film itself, for the military/wargaming enthusiast this film
is quite simply a MUST see. It's not perfect by any means as the ending
is bit too Hollywood for my taste, but it gets a good 8.5 out of 10
from me. Tiger 131 makes a appearance, my only slight criticism on that
front is that we didn't see more of it. Attention to detail in terms
of the kit used is almost second to none, and from that point of view it
must rate as one of the best WW2 films made.

Sunday, 19 October 2014

Recently finished painting up a GZG V15-54A 8 wheeled support vehicle. I already have a few of this family of vehicles, so I continued with the same 'aggressor' camouflage pattern. I've used a rare earth magnet to secure the missile launcher. As well as allowing the launcher to rotate, depending on the mission it allows me to swap it for a Heavy Auto Cannon (a spare weapon from Critical Mass walker). A small counter-measures jamming pod (ball) has been added for good measure.
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A month back I was at an event on Ginkel Heath remembering Operation Market Garden and the British para drop. Whilst there I saw this 6pdr AT gun, and got an opportunity to look through the sight. Found myself amazed at the simplicity and lack of any appreciable magnification !

Wednesday, 24 September 2014

Friday, 5 September 2014

Little Johnny says "I wanna be a
billionaire, going to the most expensive clubs, take the
best bitch with me, give her a Ferrari worth over a
million bucks, an apartment in Hawaii, a mansion in Paris,
a jet to travel through Europe, an Infinite Visa Card and
to make love to her three times a day".

The teacher, shocked, and not knowing what to do with the
bad behaviour of the child, decides not to give importance
to what he said and then continues the lesson."And you, Susie? " the teacher asks.Susie says "I wanna be Johnny's bitch."